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I just back from my fifth SXSW and if my voice is any indicator,
I had a great time.

In the days to come, there will be a lot of back and forth
analysis over who "won" SXSW and whether or not there was a
breakthrough technology to watch out for. It stems from the
Austin conference's reputation for being a kingmaker. But
where did that come from and is it well deserved?

I was at SXSW in 2007--the "Year of Twitter". Almost
overnight, Twitter went from a passing curiosity among a small
group of edge bleeders to a freight train that hasn't looked
back. What happened was that you had a unique combination
of factors that are probably unlikely to ever happen again, which
is why playing the"win SXSW"game is probably going to be a losers
bet for most people. Its also why you can probably cut your
social media strategist budget in half when it comes to the app
and brand arms race this conference has become.

What happened in '07

First off, there was very little going on with our mobile devices
at the time. There were no iPhones, no apps, and so getting
some social use out of phones was a complete novelty. Even
social networking as we know it was early--Facebook was a closed
network with just under 20 million users at the time. The
landscape was pretty wide open for something new.

Second, many of the trendsetters were on it at the time, but were
searching for a good use case for it. It wasn't until I saw
the critical mass of people in the same place that its value
became more obvious--but the key was that I was primed for
getting an answer. As opposed to the app fatigue we
experience today, I found Twitter interesting and was hoping some
utility would come of it.

Twitter made connecting to people easier.
I didn't have to give someone my phone number to allow them to
contact me and I could keep up with others without asking for
anything on their behalf. People want to connect to
others--most times just to a small group they care about, other
times to a mass audience, but when you make connecting easier,
you can be successful. That's where I think Foursquare won
out over Gowalla--they made it much more about finding real
people than about virtual goods and game mechanics.

It’s incredibly difficult to imagine that set of circumstances
ever existing again—and so it strikes me as a futile effort to,
year in and year out, try and watch to see which apps and
services will be the breakout hits of SXSW. The conference
changed the momentum of one startup, and Foursquare edging out
Gowalla last year on their home turf could kind of count for a
half win—because they already had nearly a million users
already. So, one and a half kingmaking stories in what...
17 years? That's hardly what I'd call a guarantee, and not
enough to keep watch for it every hear. Happenstance,
anyone?

What SXSW has always been about is people. It is the single
best place in the creative innovation world to build
relationships and get to know people. I have friends from
all over the world that I've met over the last five years that I
can't wait to see in Austin every year. It's where I met
Rob May from Backupify for the first time in person--and I got
to back him through First Round four years later.

The companies that rocked SXSW this year got that. GroupMe set up a
casual space to meet, chat, and gnosh on grilled cheese
sandwiches right across from the convention center. They
didn't make you go pedicabbing halfway across town to go to their
overhyped event. They didn't invite 4,000 people to their
party, only 23 of which were on a VIP list. I had friends
that didn't RSVP that got in, and they didn't have to wait
forever. They didn't bust through the fire code
either. And their app? It helped you cut through the
noise and talk to the people who you wanted to talk to--making
connections easier. Did they win SXSW? I think they
had the most impressive showing of any app, but I go back to
something Chris Fralic asked me once: "What do you get if
you win?" This is what I like most about the team with the
pound sign mascot--they know the answer is "Nothing much."
The game is far from over and the road is long. They
weren't just sunning themselves at their grill--they were taking
business meetings, talking to reporters--working their butts
off. It wasn't just a big party to them.

The companies that lost SXSW are the ones that spend a ton of
dollars to plaster their logo on flatbed trucks without even so
much as a mention of what their app did, what their brand
represents or who they were. They were the mobile teams
that gave me a place to plug in, but didn't put a representative
on the floor so I could ask why I don't have the latest version
of Android on my phone. They were the ones that treated
their party like a meatpacking district nightclub, turning (and
pissing off) more people away at the velvet rope then they could
ever hope to "influence". Nothing like making someone wait
on a long line to give them a sour taste about your brand.

So did SXSW jump the shark this year? I don't think
so. Was it noisier? Sure... but I just paid
attention to the awesome people who continue to show up year in
and year out. The rest is easily ignored with the right
app.